The snaps show photographers from around the world, who are willing to do just about anything for the perfect picture – whether that be tussling with a seal or withstanding a sharp shove from an angry gorilla. Other brave snappers can be seen getting up close and personal with leopards and great white sharks as they persist in getting the ultimate wildlife shot. Here: Christophe Vasselin gets pushed over by a gorilla. (Photo by Christophe Vasselin/Caters News Agency)

Light is the sole reason why life exists. It provides us with warmth; it allows us to see; it nourishes all the living things on this planet. Many painters, especially the masters of Old Renaissance Period, have recognized the importance of light and its intimate connection with nature and life itself. In their paintings they gave tribute to light, giving the impression that their paintings had a light source hidden within them. Al Hogue, the artist who created the paintings that you see before you, has studied their techniques for many years. As time went by, light permeated not only his paintings by also his life, becoming his sole philosophy.

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A student participates in celebrations ahead of the Janmashtami festival, which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna in Mumbai, India, August 23, 2016. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A performer is seen floating in mid-air as he holds onto a moving bus during the International Magic Festival in Luoyang, Henan province, China September 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A policewoman uses her mobile phone as navy honor guards stand near of a World War Two memorial during celebrations to mark Victory Day in the Black Sea port of Odessa May 9, 2014. Ukraine celebrates the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two on May 9. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

38 year old Prabhat Sinha, from Assam, carries a load of coal weighing 60kg's, supported by a head-strap, as he ascends the staircase of a coal mine on April 16, 2011 near the village of Khliehriat, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)